Chapter 177 Lantern Festival
If at the beginning everyone felt that hanging someone up and beating them as punishment for running away, and that the whip never even touched the mother once, was too lenient.
So after witnessing the scene that night—the man whipping his own flesh and blood in the courtyard, one lash after another, expressionless yet showing no emotion—these voices vanished overnight.
That night, Pipa tossed and turned between conscious pain and unconsciousness.
After finally passing out, she would be quickly woken up by being splashed with cold water, which seemed to have salt in it.
Even Pipa couldn't quite tell the difference. His mouth was filled with the taste of blood, and his body was burning with pain that seemed to seep into his bones from his flesh.
Later on, he almost got used to the whipping and didn't even feel it anymore.
Pipa suddenly thought that it would be better to die like this.
Death would end everything... How wonderful...
However, the woman's cries and the banging on the wooden door coming from the house not far away were etched into his ears with each sound, becoming clearer and clearer, and crashing into his heart.
Then Pipa realized that she couldn't die yet.
If he were dead, it might be my mother who is hanging here being beaten right now.
so……
So he couldn't die, even if it was just for his mother, for the words she had said—"For you, your mother has to stay here to live..."
Of course, this is when the loquat still has the energy to think.
In the latter half of the night, Pipa became completely unconscious. Not only could he not open his eyes, but even the sounds around him seemed to have faded away.
He felt himself floating in an endless darkness.
—Perhaps, this is what death feels like?
Pipa's heart skipped a beat. The first thought that came to mind was not "I'm dead," but "What will my mother do if I die?"
He still remembers the woman who hugged him and sobbed silently in the vegetable garden that day.
Recalling that barely audible "I'm sorry," Pipa felt even more guilty.
If she were to die like this, her mother would likely take all the blame upon her. Pipa couldn't even imagine how her mother would feel if that happened...
no……
He can't die like this, without any explanation! At least...
It's okay to say it in person.
It's okay. He's not afraid of death at all. To put it bluntly, it's just a matter of a moment, and then he won't know anything anymore. He won't feel any pain or discomfort.
There may be a little loneliness and regret, because I will not be able to stay by my mother's side anymore, and I will not be able to see with my own eyes what the place where my mother grew up looks like.
—But it doesn't matter.
As long as Mother can live a good life, it's okay to forget him.
can……
Being born as someone else's child and being treated so gently as he grew up is already an immense blessing for him.
Even though her mother never said it, Pipa knew that she was a child who was forced into birth.
Just like every child cannot choose their own birth.
—Even a mother has no choice in whether or not to give birth to him.
But if given a choice, how could a mother possibly be willing to give birth to him?
In a detestable village in a foreign land, at an age when she could still be considered a child, she was forced to endure pain and humiliation to give birth to a child for someone she didn't like.
Pipa thought that if she were in that situation, she would probably want to kill the child with her own hands the moment she saw him, nipping this sin in the bud.
But Mother didn't...
She loved her as consistently as the best mother Pipa could imagine.
This is the greatest fortune of the loquat, and also its greatest sorrow.
He wished he had never been born into this world, that time could be reversed, and that his mother could return to being that carefree little girl who lived in the unknown distance, always full of longing for the future, loved by her family and friends.
But deep in her heart, the loquat so greedily and selfishly longed for her mother's gentle treatment.
He thought about what would happen if he died.
If there really is an afterlife...
He wanted to be Yu Qingzhou, to be the child born into a woman's expectations, to be able to love her as a child as a matter of course, and to be able to accept the fact that she loved him as a matter of course...
However, the loquat did not die.
After lying in bed for more than a month, the child, who had been suffering from a persistent high fever and was on the verge of death, miraculously survived and slowly recovered.
However, after that beating, he still developed some health problems.
For example, his legs could no longer run like before, and his body trembled uncontrollably when he saw his father...
According to the villagers who passed by, the family's simple-minded son seemed even more dull and stupid than before.
The loquat didn't care.
He only cared about one thing: the changes in his mother. She seemed to laugh more and talk more than before, and she was willing to chat with those gossipy old women and aunts with a smile.
The villagers all say it's because Pipa's father finally made up his mind to discipline his wife.
"Tsk, what was that saying again? Women are just like that, the more you pamper them, the more unreasonable they become. Look at them now, they're obedient. So if you ask me..."
Pipa couldn't help but glance at the person standing not far away, pointing and talking about this place. She felt strange because that person was also a woman, but an older woman.
He really wanted to go up and ask, is being a lowly person something to be proud of? Otherwise, why be so proud that you have to brag about it to other people's doorsteps?
—But the loquat didn't move.
His leg still hurts.
He had other things on his mind.
Dad went to help in the village, Mom was in the vegetable garden behind the yard, and he was all alone in the yard.
Ever since he woke up from a serious illness, he had a vague feeling that his mother was no longer as close to him as before.
The loquat didn't understand why.
But in this world, he was only ever close to his mother.
Therefore, the other party's sudden change in attitude caught Pipa off guard.
Although Pipa knew perfectly well that given his status, even if his mother disliked him, it was his own fault.
However, having experienced the close intimacy of the past, coupled with a period of excessive pampering from her mother, this sudden change was too abrupt and difficult to accept.
It even gave the loquat the illusion that it had been abandoned by the whole world.
It was around that time that loquat met Lantern Festival.
Yuanxiao is a cat, and Yuanxiao is the name given to it by Pipa.
Just like his mother always called him loquat, loquat felt he should also give his new friend a name.
After all, it's not appropriate to keep calling out "Hey, hey, hey" when you meet.
Firstly, it's impolite, and secondly, the name doesn't sound familiar.
The reason they were given this name is because when they first met, Yuanxiao was secretly eating a bowl of leftover glutinous rice balls in the kitchen.
That day, Pipa heard a noise coming from the kitchen while she was in the yard. She went to investigate and was prepared to catch a mouse, but instead of a mouse, she caught a thieving cat.
In the dimly lit kitchen, those green eyes glowed eerily, like two will-o'-the-wisps.
While Pipa was still in a daze, the cat had already made its move.
Seemingly trying to escape by jumping out of the window, he didn't expect that before he could control his strength, he slipped and rolled into the pile of ashes.
By the time Pipa finally managed to pull the cat, who was completely disoriented from the ashes, it had transformed from a white cat into a gray cat with mottled fur.
On her narrow face, her beautiful green eyes appeared even more sparkling and bright.
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